Battery

General Motors Corp., racing to emerge from bankruptcy, said it drove the first pre-production battery-powered Chevrolet Volt two weeks ahead of schedule. The first test drive occurred Tuesday and the vehicle was driven again Wednesday, the company said. The Volt is designed to drive 40 miles solely on electric power generated by plugging the battery into a household outlet overnight. After 40 miles, a gasoline engine keeps the battery charged.

Electric vehicle glossary Battery electric vehicle: Also called a BEV. This is a vehicle powered solely or primarily by a battery or battery pack. You charge the battery and run the car. There's no gasoline engine or hydrogen fuel cell to kick in and provide more power when the battery is out of juice. And there is no tailpipe or emissions. EREV: Some automakers call vehicles that run on electric motors and battery power for some distance before a combustion engine starts generating electricity an "extended range electric vehicle.

Electric bikes are slowly picking up speed. Already booming in Europe and Japan, these bike-path legal bicycles combine a normal drivetrain with an electric motor, which is usually embedded in the rear hub. You decide how much to juice your pedaling with the motor, allowing you to fly up steep hills or commute to work without huffing and puffing, then push it manually when you want a workout. There are two types of electric bikes: a "pedal-assist" that kicks in only while you are pushing the pedals, and a throttle-actuated motor that works without pedaling.

As the world's first mass-produced gasoline-electric car, the Toyota Prius has become the iPod of hybrids. More than 2 million of these automotive icons have been sold since the Prius was introduced in 1997, with mostly minor changes to its aerodynamic profile. But that's about to change with the 2012 Prius v — a larger version that looks as if growth hormones were slipped into the tank. Due in showrooms in October, the v — for "versatility" — lengthens the rear cargo hold on the regular Prius and ratchets up the hatch, opening up far more space in the back 40 without sacrificing too many miles per gallon.

In your Sept. 2 editorial, you echoed the biggest complaint about electric vehicles: the range. It seems to me an easy solution may have been overlooked. Why not design electric vehicles so that the batteries are easily removable and interchangeable? In the future, when our electric cars are "running on empty," we would do as we do today: Find a service station. But instead of filling up, an attendant, or automated system could remove your drained battery and, with a reassuring thump, replace it with a freshly charged one. Your sapped battery would be left behind and charged for a future customer in an ever-rotating supply.